Official 2016 Free Agency Thread

I'm guessing we're just not interested in him for the money he's demanding.

 

Exactly. Agree 100 percent. Except for nobody from the young core ever being as good as Westbrook. I could see Russell and Ingram reaching his level or somewhere around there.

 

vasquez, felton, galloway still out there.

g. henderson still out there.

hawes in a dump still out there.

this team can still improve.

 

Good deal for Dallas

 

dallas quietly crawling out of the abyss.

 

Damn, he would've been a nice shooter off the bench.

I still would like another guard.

 

Yah, with fresh crap instead of old crap.

 

God i want Westbrook so bad but don't want to get my hopes up anymore. But please for the love of god do not trade for him. Don't sign anymore FA's this year unless it's wade and just sign him to a max next offseason.

 

I hope KD puts a snag in their flawless ball movement. I hope him and Draymond fight over touches.

 

Just caught up on all 360 pages (yes I read through everything). Quick thoughts:

-Mozgov and Deng deals look terrible not because of dollar amounts, but LENGTH. But I understand that we had to overpay to get anybody to play for us since we couldn't even secure meetings with guys like Hassan freaking Whiteside.

-Love the Clarkson/Black signings. Got both guys at below market deals. I mean for perspective, Delly got 4/38M (WTF). Lin got 3/36M, and Solomon Hill got 4/52M. I mean these are bad deals. Period.

-KD to Warriors. Wow. When you got the best closer in the game in free agency pitching (Jerry West), you know you're gonna make noise. I don't blame KD for leaving...and he won't get any crap from anybody if he leads the Warriors back to the finals and they WIN IT, and he is their best player and wins finals MVP. Just like nobody is giving LeBron s*** anymore after he won titles, neither will anybody give KD s*** if he wins it. And to be frank, the Warriors DO need him. They haven't beaten a healthy Cavs squad yet. And with Kyrie elevating his game and potentially being a top 10 player next year, the Warriors absolutely need KD to beat the Cavs.

-I know everyone says "Don't trade for Westbrook, we'll get him in FA next summer"....really?! HOW?! There are other teams armed with cap space and they have better rosters than we do...what makes you think Westbrook is going to consider us if we can offer the same amount of $ as other squads but with less talent to entice him to save us? We couldn't even get meetings with 2nd tier FA's this summer....I don't see how that changes barring a Portland Trailblazers-esque season from our squad this year. If we have even a 1% chance of getting Westbrook right now, you do it and don't think twice. Trade Ingram. Trade Russell. Trade the entire young core if you have to. Just get it done. Then you'll see next summer....plenty of guys will take meetings with the Lakers. Westbrook is a top 5 player....MVP candidate....I mean heck, maybe we make a run at Paul George after getting Westbrook? Or maybe we make a run at KD if the Warriors crash and burn this year and he opts out? I Just think you have to go for westbrook and not think twice about it. Securing his bird rights will give us a significant advantage over EVERY other team out there next summer.

-Screw boston. I hope they suck forever. With that being said, if they make a trade for Westbrook, I will puke my guts out.

-Screw the Clippers....overpaid for Rivers and Crawford after missing out on KD, serves them right.

-Is Allen Crabbe available? I like him....but now with KD going to GS....that opens the door for Westbrook so maybe we don't overpay for anybody going forward and fill out roster with 1-year deals?

-I wish KD had made his decision earlier....100% confident we don't give Mozgov that terrible contract had we known KD would bolt and now suddenly Westbrook could be available...


-I hate hate hate that Mahinmi got same deal as Mozgov. Would have taken him over Mozzy for sure. Also hate that BIyombo went to Orlando....I wanted him too. Oh well.

-Pachulia to the Warriors....they replaced Bogut in less than 2 seconds.

-Oh and SCREW YOU MARK CUBAN. You b*tched and compalined about our CP3 deal and about super teams yet you just HELPED create a super team out there in GS!!! Where are all these small market owners now that complained about our deal? All of them can go to hell

-This has been one of the craziest free agencies in recent memory. But OKC really messed up by not securing Al Horford.

 

I don't want to do anything to break up or slow down the development of our young guys. The level of talent most of them have, they will develop sooner than later. Randle, Russell, Ingram and Clarkson will be a very good foundation to build on, Nance not far behind. Good chemistry, team play, and a system that takes advantage of our guys strength will make for some exciting winning basketball. Luke is going to make it fun but also hold players accountable. All players. This group likes each other and all seem to work very hard. Super teams seem to flash bright and burn out or somehow self-destruct. Even if they don't we will be challenging them in a few years.

 

@fabfourlakers you had me until your take on Westbrook.

What makes anyone think he's even remotely interested in a 5-year deal? In case you haven't noticed, Bird rights for top-tier FA's don't mean s*** Notice how Lebron and Durant are signing 1+1 deals? It gives them max flexibility and control over their situation. If things don't work out, they'll bolt. To think Westbrook would even consider a multi-year contract with a lottery team is just plain naive.

Trading for Westbrook doesn't help our case AT ALL. It only hurts us by taking us back 2-3 full years (2-3 lottery picks) in the rebuild. Westbrook will not come here via trade or free agency. Even if he does, it'll just remind him how awful it feels to lose and he'll leave the first chance he gets. Frankly we're not ready to land a superstar yet. The stars will not align for Westbrook in 2016 or 2017. I'd advise anyone dreaming of landing him to let it go.

 

@Lakerman JSJ @Toklat @tada I hear all of you. I'll say this....we should wait until the deadline to make any Westbrook deals. We'll have more leverage, the young guys will have shown whether they can play or not, and now maybe we don't have to give up all of your pieces and maybe it's just one or two of them (Clarkson, Russell and Nance?). I think the 5th year might be important to Westbrook....it's a difference of $50M!!!!

I think people need to understand that we don't have a great chance of landing Westbrook UNLESS our young squad totally balls out this year and we either get close to scratching the playoffs like the Suns did 3 years ago when they won 49 and missed the 8th seed by one game....or we actually scratch the playoffs like the Blazers did last year and make enough noise to entice a superstar to come and take our team to the next level. I think it IS possible for us to do this, but literally all the chips would have to fall into place. Russell would have to be 18/5/5, Clarkson would need to become a pretty adequate defender in his own right, Deng would have to be as good as he was for the HEAT in the 2nd half of the season when Bosh went down and he played lots of small ball 4...Randle will need to be 15 and 11 with much better defense....Ingram will need to be ROY or have a Towns-like transformation in his first year....and Mozgov will need to be 2015 NBA Finals Mozgov....and our bench will need to ball out (Lou, Nance, Black, etc). Anything is possible with Luke as coach now, but I'm tempering my expectations. We are either going to ball out and have the craziest turnaround in NBA history (I mean going from 17 wins to 50 wins would be astronomical)....or we're going to be marginally better and win 25ish games. In that scenario, there's ZERO chance Westbrook comes and that's what I'm worried about is we'll miss out on yet another transcendent player and possibly lose him to the C-bags or Spurs or another team that we all don't want to win another championship.

 

***Hey, Guys, I updated the first page of this thread. I got the list from GT. It includes the top 100 FA's and their salaries.****

 

So we have the ability to open up enough room for another max contract, and 2 of the top 3 free agents are still available? Do it Mitch!